


Poison, Or Something Just As Sweet

by cydbys



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Coming of Age, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Road Trips, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 00:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12287412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cydbys/pseuds/cydbys
Summary: There are things that are different, like how she'd almost always dreamed the witch as ugly. Raven is anything but.Raven is beautiful, and looks so much more so with the concentration on her face and the potion clutched in her other hand."Give me a while when I go out, okay? I think I'll like the peace."She remembers being in Briar's story, the way that sleep had felt. But this is her's, and this is Raven's.When she bites into the apple, it's sweet.





	1. Chapter 1

Raven means to call Apple, she really does. There's an alert on her phone about it and a sticky note stuck to her computer, it's just that she doesn't have the time and she doubts Apple does either. 

She really would've called that night, just to catch up, regardless of whether or not she saw the news. 

"Happily Never After? Apple White ditches longtime Prince Charming." 

She reads the article four times before the truth of it sets in- Apple had went through the biggest breakup of her life, and she hadn't even told her best friend. 

She'd told Goldie (in an interview, but it still counted) of all people, and Raven was left to find out in a gossip magazine. 

She calls her without thinking twice. 

"Hey, Raven." 

"Hey, Apple." 

She sounds different. Sadder, maybe. Or just... serious. 

"I saw the news." 

"Oh. Raven, I was meaning to tell you about it. I've just been so busy." 

"We should meet up." Maybe this conversation wouldn't be so awkward face to face. 

"Yeah, I'll be around." 

~ 

"Being around" it seemed, meant always there. 

Apple had cancelled her tour- another thing Raven found out through an article- and claimed that it had nothing to do with Daring. 

Raven reads the quote again and again: "I'm really just trying to figure myself out right now. I don't know what I want." 

Raven is intimately acquainted with that feeling. She remembered senior year, and all those nights laying awake in bed and watching Apple sleep, half hating herself for being a creep and half full of longing. 

She's still figuring herself out, she reckons, because it's been years and she hasn't steadily dated a single person. 

A single girl. 

Hardly anyone even knows- Maddie does, she always knows things, but who else could she tell? 

Not any of her school friends, because she wasn't sure they'd all get it and it isn't exactly something she could just say out of the blue. 

Not any of her not-school friends, because they were acquaintances at best. 

Not her mom, because was never around and almost definitely did not care. 

Not Apple, because... 

Well, just not Apple. 

Dex, of all people, knew but that was because she knew he'd get it. 

He'd done the whole pining over your roommate thing, but it had worked out a lot better for him. 

They didn't talk all that often, anyway. Apple is around, for sure, because Raven keeps seeing her- at her favorite coffee shop, in her favorite stores, there to pick up her little brother from Ever After Elementary just as Raven is leaving from teaching the special Junior Potions class. 

It's always the same thing- we should get together for dinner or something! Catch up! 

And then they never do.


	2. Chapter 2

Raven is a little bored. 

It's summer, so no work at the school and heat makes her sluggish anyway. 

It's summer, and Maddie would never hurt her on purpose but she has other friends, friends who actually like to do things like drink tea on the beach. 

Raven just isn't that girl. 

There's a Good Witch festival in in Oz- that means a quick trip to their in-the US-dimension-location and a longer one to Oz's in-Kansas-easy-access-portal. 

She packs a bag, makes a plan and then Apple throws a wrench in that plan. More accurately, Apple throws herself down on Raven's couch. 

"I need some change in my life." Apple says. 

Raven bites back a comment about how Apple finally talking to her is a pretty big change in itself. 

Instead, she says "I'm going to Oz." 

Apple sits up in alarm. "Permanently?" 

The worry in her eyes eases the harshness in Raven's. 

"No, for the good witch festival." 

Apple looks around and notes the packed bag by the door. "Oh. Well I wouldn't want to keep you." 

Raven hasn't even finished saying 

"Would you like to come with?" before Apple is saying yes. 

~ 

They go to rent a car, and Apple pays for it. 

"I have plenty of money." Apple says when Raven protests. 

"My mom's a queen." 

"So is mine!" 

It's a good point, so Raven lets it go. 

That doesn't mean she doesn't pay for their dinner. 

~ 

They don't talk about all the things they should talk about until some hotel in Illinois, and usually one would drive through the night while the other slept but they're both just so tired. 

They check in during the afternoon, and are sound asleep before they order dinner. Raven wakes up first and checks the time. 

Midnight. 

She looks over at Apple, still small even on the tiny twin bed. 

It's senior year all over again. 

Apple is awake when Raven comes back up from the vending machine. She'd bought sodas, one of each of their fruit options, a bag of cheese flavored chips, and sour gummy worms. Apple takes a soda and the gummy worms. Raven peels a banana. 

"I cancelled my tour." Apple says, breaking the silence. 

It's something they both know, but it feels better when Apple says it like this. 

"It's not because of Daring, really. That was a long time coming. It's... I haven't been myself lately. I'm not happy." She hesitates. "I've been thinking about destinies lately," Raven prepares herself. "Maybe they're a part of us, whether we like it or not." Raven shudders a little, but hums in agreement. 

"Or maybe I want nothing to do with it. My life is at a standstill. It's like I'm asleep." Her eyes light up a little, the old Apple-has-an-idea face Raven has missed. But then she sees where the other girl is looking- the apple on the dresser. 

"No." Raven says her first real word of the night. "Apple- no. You would have to wake up! We can't just-" 

"Do you have what you need?" 

That look on Apple's face has turned dangerous. 

"Yes, but I... Apple, I can't." 

"Please. I need this. We can do it and put it behind us. You can make an antidote." 

Now, that was a good selling point. Raven could make an antidote. But then again, how could she be sure it would work. 

She's going to do it anyway, she realizes. She was always going to have to. 

"It's what happens after that's important." She says to Apple, relenting. 

"Happily ever after."


	3. Chapter 3

Apple has thought about how this would go a million times. 

Sometimes, she would bite the apple and kiss Raven with the taste of it still heavy on her lips, always a little bitter. She cut that one off before it got any further. 

Mostly, she'd imagined it just how it had happened to her mother. 

Some things are the same- Raven's hand, extending toward her with a shiny apple in her palm. 

There are things that are different, like how she'd almost always dreamed the witch as ugly. Raven is anything but. Raven is beautiful, and looks so much more so with the concentration on her face and the potion clutched in her other hand. 

"Give me a while when I go out, okay? I think I'll like the peace." 

She remembers being in Briar's story, the way that sleep had felt. But this is hers, and this is Raven's. 

When she bites into the apple, it's sweet. 

~ 

Everything in her dream is gentle. She feels peace shift around inside of her before settling down under her ribcage. It's a welcome feeling. 

The sky is in every shade of the rainbow, but soft colors. Birds chirp nearby. A raven lands on a branch and looks her in the eye. 

"I love to sing." She says, and it takes a second to make her voice work. "But it isn't what I always want to do. I don't like the spotlight- I just want to make people happy somehow." 

Suddenly, Briar is there. 

"You're asleep too?" She asks. 

Apple frowns. "Yes. Are you okay?" A surge of worry runs through her. 

"It's nothing I can't handle." 

Apple admires her so much more in that moment- that her biggest fear is now something she is completely confident in her control over. 

"What were you saying?" 

Apple realizes this is her first chance to really talk to Briar in months. 

She hopes Raven is slow with the antidote. 

"I don't know who I am." 

Briar tilts her head in question. "Who we are is what we love. What do you love?" 

Apple doesn't hesitate. "Problems I can solve. Helping people. Science." 

Her brain to mouth filter is apparently asleep as well. 

"I love science. Science and Raven." 

Briar smiles knowingly. "I think both of those are very realistic goals." 

Apple feels the tug of wakefulness. She hurries to hug Briar. "I miss you." She admits. 

"I know. Me too." 

~ 

When Apple wakes up, Raven's breath is gentle on her chin. The other girl is gone quickly, the moment she sees Apple's eyelids flutter. 

"The antidote worked." 

Apple touched her fingers to her lips. 

"Remember the promise you made, right before graduation." She warns. 

The promise was that Raven would never lie to her, not even to protect her. It had been the result of a dramatic affair, with Raven almost going dark side to save Apple's life. 

Now, Raven's eyes are desperate. 

"I don't want to make you feel like you have to do anything. With all of this..." She can't say the TL words, she just can't. "The antidote didn't work, and I panicked, I'm sorry." 

(Later, Apple will think it would have been smooth of her to say "Next time you kiss me, I want to be awake for it.") 

Instead, she blurted out, "I want to go to a normal college. In, I don't know, Maine or something. I want to be a scientist, Raven. I want to help people. I want my true love at my side when I do." 

Raven jolts. "True love?" 

"That's what we are to each other, right? Sorry, I just assumed. I mean, it would make sense." 

"How would it make sense?" 

"Ray, I've loved you for years." 

The nickname makes something warm flare in her chest. 

"But not like that." 

"Yes, like that. I would say I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable but you did kiss me." 

Raven pulls her into a hug. 

Let's try this whole true love thing out." 

"I'd say we have it down, or at least we did in high school."


	4. Chapter 4

It's a love story turned inside out. Their moms disapprove, the tabloids disapprove. Maddie says it was obvious the whole time, and Briar throws them a party. Dex hugs Raven, and Hopper stands in front of Apple like they're mirror images. 

Apple ditches the fairy tale music scene, and starts playing at a café. She's earning her degree, and college is expensive, but her mom didn't disapprove enough to cut her off, so. Neither did Raven's. 

Full time elementary school teaching jobs don't pay very well. Regardless, their rent is always paid, and they always have good meals, and Apple makes friends that think fairy tales are nothing more than fiction. 

Now, when Raven kisses her awake, it's much less dramatic. 

"Honey, I'm home!" 

Apple looks up from her current song writing spree. 

"Hey, Ray." 

"Did you see what I left you on the counter?" 

Apple smiled and gestured towards the half eaten apple pie. "I did indeed." 

"Was it good?" 

"Of course, Ray." 

Raven kisses her forehead. 

"So this is what Happily Ever After feels like." 

"It must be." 

**the end.**

**Author's Note:**

> I am evieslonnie on tumblr!


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